Arsenal Should Make Daniele Rugani High Priority

Arsenal’s center backs are solid against lesser opposition, but they come up short against big teams. Could the Gunners use a new option in Daniele Rugani?

There’s no doubt about it – Per Mertesacker made a costly mistake against Chelsea, and it cost his team the game. Arsenal weren’t planning to play with ten men for 70 minutes, and it is now the second time in the 2015/16 season that an Arsenal center back has been sent off. In the away fixture in September 2015, Gabriel tussled with Diego Costa and lost his cool, condemning his team to a 2-0 defeat.

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The Arsenal defense has been especially good this year against a lot of teams in the Premier League. However, it is in the big games where Gunners fans see the most frequent mistakes made by the big boys in the middle of the back four. Could the Gunners use another option in central defense, so that they have more rotation between players after one of them makes a costly mistake?

It might be too late in the transfer window for consideration with such a frugal manager, but Juventus center back Daniele Rugani is only 21 years old and he would be a great option.

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Rugani is a young player, and has only made a handful of appearances for Juventus after joining from Empoli in the 2014/15 Season. While Empoli were relegated from Serie A at the end of 2014/15, Rugani averaged a 6.99 on whoscored.com over 3420 minutes at center back. For a central defender to have nearly a 7.00 average rating while his team gets relegated means that goal scoring is likely the problem in the team.

At Juventus, Rugani trains with the best defenders in the world – but he doesn’t get very much game time. Since it is already the back end of January and Arsenal might not do so much business from here on out, let Rugani train with Bianconeri for another six months and then buy him in the summer. He will still be very young for a center back, and he will be even more talented.

Juventus bought Rugani for a only £5 million a season ago, but he hasn’t played a ton of games for them yet. Since Arsenal aren’t going after one of the star Juve defenders like Bonucci, they wouldn’t have to break the bank for him. Perhaps if he was Raphael Varane or Aymeric Laporte, young defenders who already lead their back line, the transfer fee would be high. However, the price tag on Rugani couldn’t be above £15-20 million.

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Arsenal have two main center backs at the moment. Gabriel Paulista is a third option, but he is a raw Premier League talent and needs time to settle in the back line before he can become a mainstay. At the moment, there is an opening for a fourth center back. Nacho Monreal is coming into central defense when two central defenders are unavailable – that is reason enough.

Not only would Arsenal get a fourth center back in Daniele Rugani, they would also be getting a long-term partner for Gabriel. Calum Chambers is another central defender in the first team, but he is more of a utility player at the moment. On the contrary, Rugani has been training as a central defender for three seasons at the top level and is progressing well.

The thing about Gabriel is that he is a more mobile defender than Mertesacker, but doesn’t have the passing ability and composure of Laurent Koscielny. Once Mertesacker has been replaced, Koscielny might be approaching 33 or 34 years old and his legs will be going. Gabriel will be the quicker defender when he plays alongside the Frenchman, but he might not be good enough in possession.

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Rugani is a ball playing center back and he would make a dynamic duo with Gabriel, capable of contending with Premier League strikers in the future. If the Arsenal academy doesn’t make stars anymore, why not purchase one on the cheap?